Naked Magazine 19

NKD
N A K E D M A G A Z I N E
PUBLISHERS
Ariella Mastroianni
Catherine Powell
EDITOR
Nicola Pring
PHOTOGRAPHY
Catherine Powell
WRITERS
Katie Amey
Isaac Bate
Olga Khvan
Stacy Magallon
Ariella Mastroianni
Christine O’Dea
Stephanie Petit
Catherine Powell
Nicola Pring
Tanya Traner
Kiki Van Son
DESIGNER
Catherine Powell
COURTESY OF »
Anthony Green
Photo Finish Records
Austin Mahone
PMK*BNC
Boys Like Girls
Columbia Records
Conditions
eOne Music
Every Avenue
Fearless Records
Hellogoodbye
Stunt Company Media
2
AUSTIN MAHONE
Kevin Devine
JMManagement
Kingsfoil
Master Key Management
Lacey Caroline
Absolute Management
R5
Hollywood Records
Sheppard
Big Picture Media
Tyler Ward
EMC | Bowery
32-41

ALSO FEATURING
4-9
22-27
46-53
BOYS LIKE GIRLS
ANTHONY GREEN
KEVIN DEVINE
10-13
54-55
KINGSFOIL
28-31
LACEY CAROLINE
14-19
HELLOGOODBYE
56-59
R5
TYLER WARD
42-45
20-21
60-65
SHEPPARD
CONDITIONS
EVERY AVENUE
3

BOYS LIKE GIRLS
WORDS BY KATIE AMEY » PHOTOS BY CATHERINE POWELL

It seems inherently appropriate that Boys Like Girls
drummer John Keefe would be working in the studio
only moments before our interview.
The 29-year-old has been making music for as long
as he can remember, and for the last six years, that
has most often taken the form as drummer for
the pop-rock band. Boys Like Girls skyrocketed to
stardom in the later half of the last decade, and then
shocked fans when they announced a very unexpected
break in late 2011. Though music history
has proved that exiting members and solo attempts
have steered most bands off course irrevocably,
Boys Like Girls’ members always stayed strong
individually — and ultimately reunited for a new EP
and album in late 2012. “We’re all best friends,” John
says. “We talked to each other every week no matter
what.”
Boys Like Girls — known by their fans as BLG — was
formed in 2005 in Massachusetts, but John’s love for
music began much earlier. “When I was 12, the band
instructor brought a snare drum to school and told
people about drums,” he says. “I was hooked ever
since. John played in several local bands during high
school, before ultimately meeting would-be Boys
Like Girls lead singer Martin Johnson in this mid-
2000s. “I met Martin on a DIY tour,” John says. “It kind
of just came together organically.”
The pair found lead guitarist Paul DiGiovanni and
bassist Bryan Donahue soon after. “I had played in
a folk-y project with [Paul] and I had also been in a
post-hardcore emo type of band with Bryan,” John
says. “We all just played in and around New England.”
And while the foursome’s interesting band name,
Boys Like Girls, seems like it should have a lengthy
backstory behind it, John insists that there isn’t one.
“It just kind of made sense at the time,” he says. “It
was like, ‘Oh yeah, this sounds pretty cool. There’s no
band called Boys Like Girls. Why not give it a whirl?’”
Shortly thereafter, the band started a PureVolume
channel to get their sound out there, and eventually
uploaded rough demos of two songs that would
later become two of their biggest hits: “Thunder”
and “The Great Escape.” The channel took off with
fans and industry executives alike and the band
soon began touring — including slots on tours with
Cute Is What We Aim For, All Time Low and Butch
Walker.
In 2006, their eponymous Boys Like Girls record was
released, selling over 500,000 copies in the U.S.
alone. The success of the album catapulted BLG
into stardom and landed them spots on countless
6
BOYS LIKE GIRLS
tours over the next three years. After being asked
what the moment was when he knew things had
changed for the band, John hesitates. “Doing MTV’s
Total Request Live and hearing your song on the
radio,” he says. “Those moments are just crazy.”
The first radio success John is referring to is none
other than BLG’s breakout hit “The Great Escape,”
which the band heard on the airwaves for the first
time while traveling on tour. “We were in the Midwest
and Martin was driving during a late overnight
drive,” John remembers. “All of a sudden, he just
started screaming and yelling. I was like, ‘Holy shit!’ I
thought we were crashing.”
But ‘crashing’ couldn’t be further from the band’s reality.
BLG would soon embark on their first co-headlining
tour — with Good Charlotte, no less — for
the Soundtrack of Your Summer Tour in 2008, which
they would follow up with their 2009 sophomore record,
Love Drunk. The album included the massively
successful “Love Drunk” — Martin’s then-girlfriend
Ashley Tisdale even appears in the music video,
which has been viewed over nine million times on
YouTube — and a melancholic yet sweet duet with
Taylor Swift, “Two Is Better Than One.” John says that
even now, those songs receive some of the warmest
receptions on tour. “[The crowd] always goes nuts
on ‘The Great Escape’ and ‘Love Drunk,’ but it’s really
cool to see all the cell phones and lighters go up on
ballads like ‘Two Is Better Than One,’” John says.
In late 2009 and into 2010, it seemed like Boys Like
Girls were on the top of the world, even making
international news as one of the first acts to perform
at Asia’s very first MTV World Stage Live concert in
Malaysia. But in early 2011, the band surprised fans
by announcing that they were taking some time
apart to work on individual projects, with Martin
even debuting new solo material on the radio in
June of that year. “We were just tired,” John says of
their decision to take a break. “We needed a minute
to try some other stuff. We’d been on the road for so
long, for six years straight, so it was time to hang it
up for a minute.”
But John had never really considered an alternative
career path to music. “What would I be doing?” he
mused after being asked what he would’ve done
had the band never reunited. “I don’t know…” After
several minutes, he ventures, “Maybe I’d be fighting
mixed martial arts or something. My brother’s a
trainer for MMA fighters so I imagine I’d probably be
doing that. I actually love that stuff. I go and see some
of those guys when I’m home and screw around.”

BOYS LIKE GIRLS
7

BOYS LIKE GIRLS
Thankfully for John, the band’s break was shortlived,
and Martin began tweeting the hashtag
#boyslikegirlsisback in November 2011. However,
bassist Bryan Donahue used the time apart to
develop multiple side projects, and by November,
had decided that he would be leaving the band
completely. Fellow New England-based bassist and
friend of the band Morgan Dorr quickly stepped
in to take his place. “Morgan and I had been doing
some stuff together,” John says. “Martin had a bunch
of songs and he called me up, sort of like, ‘Okay,
what’s everyone doing?’ It just felt right. Music is
all about vibes and feelings and that’s how we’ve
always treated it.”
The band spent the better part of 2012 in the studio
recording their comeback record, Crazy World. “We
did a lot of [the recording] at Martin’s house,” John
tells us. “It was a very different way of doing things
because you don’t ever have to stop. If we wanted
to, we could play all night. We literally spent six
months at his house, we lived there together, ate together,
and worked out together. We did everything
together.”
Still, there was no denying the elephant in the room.
Would the fans respond to new music after almost
three years of no new material from the band? “It felt
like we had to start over because we waited so long,”
John says. “I think the music shows a natural progression
for us. We’re a little bit older and the music
is reflective of that — of our travels and experiences.
It’s not like, ‘Oh we’re this new band and we’re trying
to do this different thing.’ We’re just doing what
comes naturally and what comes out. I don’t think
we left any stones unturned, so hopefully it reacts.”
8
NKD

Frankie joins singer and guitarist Jordan Davis,
Tristan Martin (guitar and piano) and Tim Warren
(bass) in this band hailing from central Pennsylvania,
who have shared concert dates with the likes
of The Goo Goo Dolls, OAR and The Neon Trees.
Frankie fits right in with the guys, who are
constantly poking fun at and teasing each other.
They have a great dynamic even though Frankie
just joined Jordan and Tristan, childhood friends
who have been playing together in different
bands for most of their lives.
“Our families grew up together so at a pretty
10
KINGSFOIL
FRANKIE MUNIZ OF MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE
FAME HAS TRADED IN HIS HOLLYWOOD ROLE
FOR A SPOT BEHIND THE DRUMS IN INDIE POP-
ROCK GROUP KINGSFOIL.
WORDS: STEPHANIE PETIT >> PHOTOS: CATHERINE POWELL
young age we started Kingsfoil as a duo,” Jordan
says. After years of writing, recording and playing
together, the two began adding more members
to Kingsfoil about six years ago.
The entire group is excited and eager to be
getting their music out after releasing their
sophomore album, A Beating Heart is a Bleeding
Heart in September, which was no simple task.
“It feels good to finally have it out because it’s
been a while in the making,” Jordan says.
The guys released on their own label, Holiday
Heart Records. While recording in Nashville, Tenn.

they were dealing with the departure of band
member Joe Cipollini, which left them without a
drummer. Jordan explains that while some songs
on the album were recorded with Joe, Tristan
ended up filling in on drums for a few songs.
Frankie had been in another band, the
unsigned You Hang Up, which broke up in August
of 2011. He got word from the shared manager
of You Hang Up and Kingsfoil that Kingsfoil were
looking for a drummer.
“My band had split up, they were looking for a
drummer, I came in and auditioned and it was a
good fit for all of us,” Frankie says. “I’m so excited
to be part of the band.”
Despite changing members and dealing with
some health issues that kept them from touring,
the guys keep a positive attitude. Jordan says
that they’ve stuck it out, and they’ve been
through less members then most bands.
“Setbacks are part of it,” Tristan says. “Life happens
and you’ve just got to keep wanting to push
12
forward and we all do. It’s cool to be in a band
with four people who want to do everything they
can to make it happen. We’re all ready to go. We
want this more than anything.”
Kingsfoil have been busy playing lots of shows
to get their name out there. The band estimate
they played around 40 shows this fall.
The guys all agree they don’t have a lot of
down time while touring. Recently, they enjoyed
a five-week break, but they’re excited to be back
on the road.
The guys say they are pretty ordinary, boring
people outside the music life.
“I like to exercise, I like being outside… It’s like,
wow, so does everybody else!” Tim says.
Although they’re focused on getting exposure
by touring right now, they’re wasting no time,
already thinking ahead to writing more music.
Jordan says they do not have a strict writing
process. For A Beating Heart is a Bleeding Heart,
there were many times when he and Tristan

would come up with a song on piano or guitar
and arrange the rest of the music around it. Other
times Jordan would write over music they came
up with while playing together.
“It’s really important that [a] song can stand
by itself if you just play it on acoustic guitar or
piano,” Jordan says of all Kingsfoil’s music. “You
can really get the song and it sounds and feels
good.”
Though they’re planning to work on new
music, the guys aren’t jumping too far ahead.
They are going to give this album the exposure
they feel it deserves before looking into new
songs.
“The album is still so new to all of our fans,”
Jordan says. “We already feel like we’re ready to
write new music, but we’re really going to spend
some time in the next year and just push it and
keep touring as hard as we can.”
Kingsfoil are calling on their fans to help
spread the word.
“If we can write a song that really affects
somebody, they’re going to tell their friends
about it,” Jordan says. “It’s kind of as simple as
that. I think that’s the most important thing as far
as actually getting the word out.”
Although it likely won’t be long before
Kingsfoil are playing to huge crowds around the
country, they are clearly loving everything they
do. As Jordan very humbly puts it, “I feel very
lucky to be able to play for any amount of people
in any town.”
They plan to continue touring across and the
country and possibly overseas to Europe in the
new year, although no official plans have been
set. They would love to get a spot opening for a
larger band to get some exposure. Some plans
are in the works, but for now, the boys are tightlipped
until things are set in stone. What they can
say is, “We’re going to be busier than busy.” NKD
NKDMAG.COM
13

R5
WORDS BY STACY MAGALLON » PHOTOS BY CATHERINE POWELL

A
ccording to the pumped
up fans I spoke to outside
Highline Ballroom in New
York City, tonight’s show
is supposed to be great.
They’re shivering in harsh,
windy winter weather, but
for these fans, any kind of
weather is worth enduring
for a performance by
pop-rock, California-based
band R5, even if it means
waiting two more hours
until show time.
I walk into the venue, and with the exception of
musicians, their roadies and some equipment, the
Highline Ballroom is pretty empty, but the warm red
and orange lights create an atmosphere that is just
as cool as a packed house. The members of R5, Riker
(bass), Rocky (lead guitar), Rydel (keyboards, tambourine)
and Ross Lynch (rhythm guitar) and (Ellington)
Ratliff (drums), file out of their upstairs green
room to greet me with handshakes and high-fives.
The Lynches settle down on a black leather couch in
a far corner, and Ratliff takes a seat beside me on the
wooden floor.
The Lynches certainly look like siblings. For one,
with the exception of Rocky, their platinum blonde
hair is impossible to miss. For another, they’re
dressed in similar black and white studded ensembles.
Ratliff is dressed a little differently — he’s rocking
a simple burgundy polo and a pair of jeans. From
the corner of my eye, I watch brothers Rocky and
Ross playfully shove each other to move over, followed
by a retaliation of snarky comments behind
one another’s back. Yes, this is definitely a family.
“It was one of those things that just happened,”
Ross says of their career in the industry. The Colorado-born
Lynch siblings were always infatuated with
music. Their early arsenals contained air drums and
air guitars, but whatever the instrument, they wanted
to play it, whether it physically existed or not.
After the family migrated west to California,
Rocky’s obsession with playing the guitar began to
blossom, and it all started with a video of Fall Out
Boy’s live performance of “Beat It.” Soon after discov-
NKDMAG.COM
15

Name: Ross Lynch
Position: Vocals/Ryhthm Guitar
Name: Rydel Lynch
Position: Keyboards/Vocals
Name: Ellington Ratliff
Position: Drums/Vocals

FOLLOW R5
Name: Riker Lynch
Position: Vocals/Bass
Name: Rocky Lynch
@rikerR5 » @rockyR5 » @rossR5 » @rydelR5 » @ratliffR5
Position: Lead Guitar/Vocals
@officialR5
Individuals

ering his younger brother’s newfound passion, Riker
picked up the bass, Ross took up rhythm guitar and
Rydel put her past piano lessons to good use. They
met family friend and drummer, Ratliff, in California
and the fifth and final piece of the R5 puzzle was
completed.
“When we were younger, we’d have our family
come down to our basement and we would charge
them a dollar to watch us play. We were such little
schemers,” Rocky says laughing, causing his siblings
to join him in a reminiscent moment. Their mother
walks into the green room to say hello, and the
Lynches, Ratliff included, all jokingly call for security
to escort her from the area, then burst out in unison
laughter. “We still charge her to watch us too,” Ross
whispers to me, smirking.
R5’s beginning was
small, but nonetheless
fundamental. They
took their first steps as
a group by performing
for small crowds
at festivals they were
fortunate enough to
book. “Our father was
really great and supportive
with helping
us book shows when
we first started,” Rydel
says, explaining that he
would use the Internet
— especially Craigslist
— to search for Southern
California venues
or events that were
seeking performers.
“We would play absolutely any show we could get,”
Riker adds, noting how crucial it was for the band to
get their hands on any kind of exposure.
Once the band started to take off, Riker and Ross
pursued acting roles on music-themed hit television
shows — Riker, a Dalton Academy Warbler on Fox’s
Glee, and Ross with a lead role on Disney Channel’s
sitcom, Austin & Ally. For Riker and Ross, the balance
between a band and a successful television career
doesn’t come easy. “It’s pretty hard, actually,” Riker
says. His younger brother agrees. “I’m acting during
the day then rehearsing at night,” he says. “I try to
get as much sleep as I can.”
“WHEN WE WERE YOUNGER, WE’D HAVE OUR FAM-
ILY COME DOWN TO OUR BASEMENT AND WE WOULD
CHARGE THEM A DOLLAR TO WATCH US PLAY.”
>> ROCKY LYNCH

Australian indie-pop band Sheppard is making
a big splash in the U.S. Formed just last year,
the family-based group has already played
shows all over Australia, and has been featured
in a horror film. Just before setting off on their
first U.S. mini-tour, Sheppard talks about how
they got started, what they’re doing and where
they’re headed.
WORDS: NICOLA PRING
PHOTOS: CATHERINE POWELL

SHEPPARD
HOW DID YOU GET STARTED?
AMY SHEPPARD (VOCALS) It started off with just me,
actually. I was just an acoustic
songwriter but I was kind of going nowhere so I
added in my brother (George), who I heard singing
in the shower. I got him to do some harmonies and
then we recorded some songs and it all just went
from there. We realized that we sort of needed a
band and next thing we got Jay, who’s the third
songwriter, and we started writing our own songs.
It just sort of had this unique sound so we did some
tracks, and that’s that.
WHAT WAS YOUR NEXT STEP?
AMY Once the band had formed we went to the
recording studio and actually did our album
first. We had all these songs we’d written. Jay’s from
Sydney and we’re from Brisbane so he was living
with us at the time. We went into the studio and
recorded about 20 tracks and it’s only now that
we’ve released our first EP, and things are sort of
coming along. Our little sister Emma joined the
band because she decided she wanted to play bass,
so the family band happened.
WHAT’S YOUR FAN BASE LIKE IN AUSTRALIA?
AMY
It’s been this year that we’ve started really
gigging and touring. We’ve doing a couple of
shows down in Brisbane. Each time the audience
gets bigger and bigger. It’s really exciting to see new
people every time, and people who we haven’t met
before as well. It’s definitely getting there.
GEORGE SHEPPARD (VOCALS/PIANO) We had a reggae
station in the U.S.
pick up one of our tracks first, and they were the first
radio station in the world to play us. So we’ve actually
got quite a big fan base in the U.S. It’s probably
bigger than we’ve got in Australia right now. Because
of the success in the U.S., it’s starting to filter back into
Australia. We’ve had to leave our own country to have
success there, if that makes sense.
WHAT ARE THE SHOWS YOU’VE PLAYED IN THE U.S.
LIKE COMPARED TO SHOWS IN AUSTRALIA?
GEORGE
The New York show we did was on a
massive scale. It was in Central Park with
this massive stage. We’ve never played on anything
like that before. In Australia we usually play small
venues like clubs and that sort of thing. It’s good to
come and have a massive crowd all into it. I guess
that’s really a kind of special thing we get to do.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE U.S. AND
AUSTRALIAN MUSIC SCENES?
EMMA SHEPPARD (BASS)
I think America is more open
to listening to all different
music, whereas I find Australia really hones in on
one type of sound.
GEORGE Australia’s got this one radio station called
triple j, and that’s like the tastemaker radio
station. Everybody in Australia will listen to that
radio station to get their new music. If you’re not
on that, you don’t have any credibility there. In the
U.S.A., if there’s something new, they want to hear it.
They’re more open over here.
YOUR MUSIC IS FEATURED IN THE NEW HORROR FILM
OLD 37. HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH THE FILM?
Jay bovino (guitar)
Our songs were passed on to Big
Picture Media by the distributer
we had in the U.S. and they thought that the songs
were perfect for this film they were producing. They
got in contact with us and decided they needed to
have us on board which was really nice, and we got
to come and film a scene. We’ve never been on a film
set before, so that was really interesting to see. They
have three or four of our tracks featured in the film, so
it worked out really well.
what do you have planned for next year?
jay
We’re going to have a new single which is going
to be released early next year. We’re going to
play at the Brisbane International Tennis Tournament,
which will be good. Hopefully that will be on
TV and we’ll get to broaden our fan base. And then
we’re going a regional tour of Australia. We haven’t
done anything like that, so that’s what we’ll be
focusing on.
NKD
NKDMAG.COM
21

ANTHONY GREEN
22

ANTHONY
GREEN
WORDS BY ARIELLA MASTROIANNI »
PHOTOS BY CATHERINE POWELL»
It’s a little after 7 p.m. on Dec. 5, which means Anthony
Green has already been away from his home
in Philadelphia for half a day. It also means he’s been
away from his wife and kids, which, as he puts it,
sucks.
“I fuckin’ miss them incredibly. A day is a lot of
time, they change really fast,” Anthony says of his
sons, James and Luke. James, his oldest son, is two
years old. Luke is six months.
“Right now it’s this moment in our lives when
they’re tiny and little and they need all of you,” he
says. “It’s a really magical, special time and it’s hard
to miss it. I wouldn’t want to have a bunch of it go
by, which it will inevitably do, and know I spent it
doing stuff I could have done whenever.”
Anthony sits on a chair in the green room at
Irving Plaza in New York City with his acoustic guitar
to his left and a shopping bag filled with small gifts
for his wife and sons to his right. Not only is it the
first night of his 11-day tour with Thursday singer
Geoff Rickly, but it’s also Shoemas — a pre-Christmas
tradition he’s been talking up to his kids for
weeks.
“When I was growing up we always celebrated
the feast of St. Nicholas on the fifth of December,” he
explains. “You put your shoes out at the front of your
door and Santa’s elves would come and put candy
and things in there. I always loved the idea of Shoemas.
Today, even though I’m gone, my wife’s putting
our shoes outside.”
Eleven days isn’t a long time to be out on tour,
ANTHONY GREEN
but it’s the longest Anthony will go without visiting
home. While out on the Violent Waves tour with his
band Circa Survive, Anthony flew home nearly every
five days. The guys were on tour for a little over a
month, from September to October, to promote
their self-produced album, Violent Waves, which they
released in August. Now that he’s a father, Anthony
has two great loves: his music and his family.
“I just can’t do it anymore,” Anthony says. “I think
we’ve gotten to a place where we’re going to do
shorter tours, but I’ll travel 10 months out of the
year if [my family] could come with me.”
Anthony, now 30, has been singing with Circa
Survive since their formation in 2004 and released
his first solo record, Avalon, in 2008. Anthony has
released four full-length albums with Circa. Their
most recent, Violent Waves, which was released a
few months after Anthony’s second solo release,
Beautiful Things, peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s top
Independent Albums chart and No. 15 on the Billboard
200. He released Beautiful Things in January,
and it spent a week at No. 27 on the Billboard 200,
No. 6 on Billboard’s Alternative Albums list and No. 3
on Billboard’s Tastemaker Albums.
“We’re not like Cee-Lo, you know, we’re not making
lots of money,” he says. “But I could probably be
making just as much working full-time somewhere
else. This is just way better.”
Before the Violent Waves Tour, Anthony toured
twice to promote Beautiful Things. The first Beautiful
Things tour ran for a month, from mid-January to
mid-February, while the second lasted only 10 days
at the end of June. Needless to say, it’s been a busy
year for Anthony.
“When you do what you love for a living, you’re
always working,” Anthony says. “I love this, this is my
passion. I live it. I breathe it. I’m writing all the time,
I’m thinking about music and poetry and art all the
time...it’s everything I do and everything I am.”
Anthony always knew he was an artist.
“I knew when I was young it didn’t matter who
you are or what you did, it just mattered how you
did it,” he explains. “I was always really attracted to
the arts. Writing, poetry...just stuff about the soul. I
was never really good at school or anything like that.
I never got good grades. But I was really interested
in writing and music and stuff that was fun, you
know? I was like, I don’t want to learn that other shit
no matter how slow you teach me. I just want to
listen to metal. Fuck you.”
As the youngest of four boys in his family, with
NKDMAG.COM
23

nine years separating him from his youngest sibling,
Anthony always felt out of place. It wasn’t until
grade school, when people began to compliment
Anthony on his poems that were featured in his
school’s publication for poetry and writing that he
started to gain confidence in what he was doing.
“I was the baby,” he says. “I was sort of the black
sheep for a really long time. I didn’t feel like a part of
my family. I didn’t feel like a part of the world.”
He wrote poetry every year, and every year his
school’s publication would feature his work.
“I was really excited about it,” he says. “It was always
something I was proud of. And my Dad would
say, ‘You’re published now.’ It was a very important
thing to him.”
As an artist, Anthony always thought he’d live a
vagabond life. He never wanted kids. Not that he
didn’t like kids, he just never thought he would want
to settle down.
“I always thought I’d be some crazy nomad
person,” he says. “I was off and on with my wife for
a long time and then all of a sudden we were just
super on. And then married, on. And then one baby,
on. It just happened in a very natural, incredibly
perfect way.”
With the releases of Violent Waves and Beautiful
Things Anthony is far from settled down. But music
is just as much a part of him as his kids, who Antho-
ANTHONY GREEN
ny considers to be his greatest works of art.
“I know that’s an odd example,” he says. “But I’ve
known James for two years and Luke for six months
and every day I just look at them and think, fuck
man, these fucking things are perfect. They’re so
cute.”
James grew up around touring. “He was taken
on tour when he was very, very young,” Anthony
says. “Now he wants to play drums all the time. Even
when he builds with blocks he’s like, ‘I’m going to
build a stage. This is backstage and this is the barricade.’
Like, weird, specific things. He’ll say, ‘Where’s
your laminate? You got your laminate, Dada?’ He’s so
cool, it’s not normal.”
Having kids hasn’t changed much about Anthony’s
writing, unless he’s writing a song about them.
But he does feel a sense of urgency when writing
now that he’s a father, whereas before he felt like
he had all the time in the world and would record
whenever. The most important thing to him now,
his main priority, is to see his kids grow and to love
them unconditionally.
“[Having kids] makes me view everything in a
different way. I start thinking like, ‘Why the fuck did
I get a tattoo on my fucking head?’ You know, silly
things like that,” he says, laughing. “Everything in my
life is different now. And thank God. I love it.”
NKD
NKDMAG.COM
27

HELLOGOODBYE
WORDS BY STACY MAGALLON »
PHOTOS BY CATHERINE POWELL »
M
ost eighth-graders are still zeroing
in on their definition of love. When
I was in eighth grade, I wasn’t sure
how to define love either, but whenever
I heard the word, I thought of
hellogoodbye.
They were my band of firsts —
the first I ever saw live. Their album Zombies! Aliens!
Vampires! Dinosaurs! (2006) was the first I ever
bought with my own money. Their merchandise was
the first I ever purchased at a concert. They were my
first unhealthy obsession. It wasn’t just me, either.
My friends were just as hooked as I was. At the time,
all I ever wanted was to spend five minutes with
the band members. But when I arrived at the sad
realization that my dream was far too complicated, I
started to care less about their music, and eventually
my friends and I fell out of our naïve idea of love.
It took six years, but today, my eighth grade
dream is coming true. Cozying up beside frontman
Forrest Kline in Webster Hall’s green room, I can hear
the thumping sound of bass drums sound checking
on the nearby stage, but my inner 13-year-old’s
silent shrieking is even louder.
“It’s easier to be sick in California,” Forrest first says
to me. After a six-hour flight from the sunny coast of
Huntington Beach, Calif., I thought he’d prefer a nap
instead of an interview. But even though he’s feeling
under the weather, he assures me he’s stoked.
He’s dressed in khaki pants, loafers and a mustard
yellow sweater, smiling and joking around, trying
to present himself as if he weren’t actually sick. “My
skull feels congested and there’s a bunch of different
colors coming out of my butt. Do you know what
melted Crayola crayons look like? Yeah, like that.” he
says, laughing.
When Forrest formed hellogoodbye in 2001, he
was a high school student, experimenting with all
the different bells and whistles on music-producing
computer programs behind a closed bedroom
door. Eleven years later, his production process is
much, much easier. It’s been a long four-year period
between Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!, the
band’s first full-length, and their most recent album,
Would It Kill You? (2010). My question is — other
than their split from Drive-Thru Records, what has
changed since then? “I guess things are run a little
bit differently now,” Forrest says. “But it’s still me
recording and writing alone. That’s what I’ve always
done. But more importantly, I grew up. It was actually
a substantial chunk of growing up during that
time period.”
Forrest’s personal and musical maturation is
evident in both his physical presence and sound.
hellogoodbye’s well-remembered 2006 hit, “Here
In Your Arms” is a pop-driven, feel-good love song,
while their current material is oriented around soft
acoustics.
But even prior to the release of their infectious
single, the band gained exposure through participating
in events like South by Southwest and by being
featured on MTV. When I bring up the memory
of seeing hellogoodbye’s 2005 appearance on MTV’s
The Real World: Austin, Forrest pauses me to say
something. “But do you know anything about the
past three years?” he asks me, curiously. At this point
in our conversation, I’ve already mentioned how
much I truly loved them when I was younger, but as I
hear the question, I realize I really did fall out of love
with this band. As I answer “no,” I watch his face fall
with disappointment.
There was a year when hellogoodbye reached
their peak of popularity. For me, that point of my life
was middle school. Now, as a college sophomore, I
have slowly come to terms with the fact that hellogoodbye
is not as popular as they once were with
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29

their audiences. With a tremendous amount of radio
play with their first album, there has been a noticeable
decrease in hellogoodbye’s activity in the arena
of mainstream music. “That was never our goal,” Forrest
says. “It’s never been a goal. I mean, who would
have thought that something like that was going to
happen? Radio play is helpful and it would be nice
for something like that to happen again, but at the
end of the day, it’s always because I want to keep
hellogoodbye alive for as long as possible.”
The band’s last album was released without a
budget, so they relied on word of mouth to get their
music out. Forrest put in a great deal of effort, tweeting
and posting about their work on Facebook.
However, the band didn’t seem to receive as big of a
reaction as they had hoped for. “I guess we didn’t do
a very good job because no one knows about the
last three years. We failed,” Forrest says, cracking a
small smile. “It’s kind of frustrating to talk to people
who seemed to care at one point, but don’t have
any idea with what has happened with our music, or
what’s happening now.”
The minor setback hasn’t stopped Forrest’s passion
and drive to keep the music alive. hellogoodbye
is currently halfway done with tracking and
recording their next upcoming full-length, which is
likely to be released in early 2013. When I ask Forrest
about a possible album name, he smirks and
says, “I don’t want to spill the beans.”
While the members of hellogoodbye have come
and gone multiple times over the years, Forrest is
still loyal to his project, and plans to remain loyal.
“I’ve never had an interest in trying to start another
side-project,” Forrest says. As far as he’s concerned,
there is no point in beginning a new musical
endeavor under a different name. “It would be the
exact same thing. [I’d] rather just let hellogoodbye
meander on its little path,” he says, laughing.
As Forrest and I wrap up our conversation, I
begin to wonder where that path will lead. I’m not
in eighth grade anymore, but maybe that’s a good
thing. “Everything is very different now,” he says
with a smile. “But at the same time, nothing has
changed.” NKD
NKDMAG.COM
HELLOGOODBYE
31

AUSTIN
WORDS &
PHOTOS

MAHONE
CATHERINE
POWELL

AUSTIN MAHONE
AUSTIN MAHONE’S RISE TO FAME BEGAN SIX
MONTHS AGO, AND HE’S DEFINITELY
I meet Austin for breakfast at the Royalton
Hotel in New York City where he’ll be spending a
much needed off day from his holiday tour. His
seven-person entourage joins us. It’s extremely
chilly for December and the lobby’s fireplace is
comforting, as if Austin’s warm, boyish smile isn’t
comforting enough.
A few days ago I took a train up to Poughkeepsie,
N.Y. to see Austin perform for K104.7’s annual
Not So Silent Night Festival. As I arrived at the
Mid-Hudson Civic Center before doors opened
I saw clumps of girls with custom-made Austin
34
GETTING USED TO IT.
Mahone shirts, some plastered with his face and
lyrics, others with the word “Mahonie” (what his
fans call themselves) across the front. I’m not
entirely sure what I got myself into.
Fast forward to Austin’s set and I really don’t
know what I got myself into. Considering how
many times I’ve seen Justin Bieber in concert,
you would think I’d be used to screaming girls
by now. Wrong. When Austin walked, or should
I say danced, on stage I swear I went deaf for a
few seconds. Every girl in the room sang along
to his hit single, “Say Somethin,’” and all their

hearts melted when he picked up his guitar for
an acoustic song. Even his dancers caused a riot
in the lobby when they tried to exit the building
after the show. I was impressed.
When we sit down at a booth in the hotel’s
restaurant, I notice Austin is dressed head to
toe in Trukfit, rapper Lil Wayne’s clothing label.
He hesitates before deciding to leave his flatbrimmed
hat on and settles into the cushioned
seat to look at the breakfast menu. Though the
last six months have been non-stop music for
Austin, prior to that he had no intentions of a
superstar career.
Austin originally got involved in music when
he and his best friend Alex began posting
random, silly videos on YouTube. He then noticed
other people on YouTube posting cover songs
and Austin
decided to follow
suit. Though it
did not catch on
immediately, the
more videos he
posted, the more
views he got.
Music wasn’t
something Austin
originally wanted
to pursue. He
received his first
drum set when he
was six years old,
but playing was
never more than
a hobby. “When I
started posting [on YouTube] it was just because
we were bored,” Austin says. Before music eventually
took over his life, Austin played football and
basketball in school. Though he doesn’t have as
much time for it anymore, he still makes an effort
to shoot hoops on his off time.
Considering a music career was never in the
plan for Austin, it’s extremely impressive that a
world-renowned artist like Flo Rida didn’t hesitate
to lend his vocals on Austin’s newest single,
“Say You’re Just a Friend.” Having always been a
big fan of Flo Rida, Austin was honored to have
the rapper featured on his track. As Austin’s name
becomes more well known it’s safe to say more
collaborations will come about.
As his career grows, Austin has been getting
recognized in public. He’s starting to get used
to girls approaching him in malls or shopping
centers. Thankfully, he isn’t at the point where he
can’t leave his house without being noticed, and
he makes himself so available to his fans at his
shows there’s no need to approach him elsewhere.
Back in August he performed at a festival
in New Jersey and stayed outside until every fan
had gotten a picture and autograph.
Those fans who do make it out to his shows
know they’re in for a treat. In addition to Austin’s
killer vocals, they get to experience a full-on
production when it comes to his dancing. “When
I went in to have dance taught to me I sucked,”
Austin, says laughing. After weeks of rigorous
training he nailed it and continues to learn new
moves to perform for his fans. He’s also known
to throw new songs
into his set as a
special surprise for
fans who attend his
concerts.
“ONE DAY MY MANAGER CALLED ME UP AND WAS LIKE ‘YOU’RE
GOING ON TOUR WITH TAYLOR’ AND I WAS LIKE ‘ALRIGHT!”
>>AUSTIN MAHONE

to be released in March or April. Fans can expect
a lot more collaborations and big singles from his
Universal Republic Records debut.
With a major label backing you, it isn’t too
far-fetched to imagine hearing your song on the
radio. But in Austin’s case, it’s still a shock every
time it happens. “I was driving to Panera and
‘Say Somethin’’ came on and I was talking about
it,” he says. “It’s so weird hearing my own voice
on the radio, in my car.” Radio was never a goal
of Austin’s, considering his career started from
him just trying to entertain himself. The YouTube
world caught on to Austin before he caught on to
himself.
He signed to Universal six months ago, shortly
after posting his first cover video a few months
40
prior. After inking the deal, he picked up his life
in Texas and moved to Miami with his mom to be
closer to his manager. The now home-schooled
high school junior still keeps up with his friends
in San Antonio through Skype and texting, and
will occasionally fly out to see them, or fly them
out to visit in Miami.
Austin prefers home schooling to his regular
school back in Texas because he can work at his
own pace and focus more on his music. At this
point, he isn’t sure if he wants to go to college,
but right now he’s hoping he won’t have to. One
of his biggest goals is to have longevity in his
career and not be a flash in the pan like other
YouTube stars. He plans to stay humble and
grounded, and stay intelligent about the busi-

ness. He sits in on a lot of meetings with his label
and managers and knows “a lot more than [he]
did six months ago.”
What keeps Austin going is his fan base.
“When I’m waiting to go on stage and I hear them
chanting ‘Austin, Austin’ it’s like music to my ears,”
he says, grinning. His fans are extremely attentive
and thoughtful — one girl noticed he’d been
complaining about his desk chair and had a new
one delivered to his house. He’s extremely grateful
for all the things they’ve done for him and
their endless support. “I can’t wait to give back to
them more in 2013,” he says.
As our conversation winds down I catch Austin
yawning. It’s no surprise, it’s 9 a.m. and he’s been
working non-stop since June — I’d be tired too.
I have to give him a lot of credit— while most
16-year-old boys are studying for a math test or
playing video games with their friends, Austin
is doing the same while balancing an extremely
demanding career. After various press obligations
in New York City, he’ll continue his holiday tour
and perform at various radio shows across the
country before winding down just in time for
Christmas. Almost immediately after the ball
drops on New Years he’ll continue work on his
album before heading back on tour. After we hug
goodbye he flops back into the booth and lets
out a sign of relief, grateful to have at least a few
minutes to relax before he’s on to the next thing.
NKD
NKDMAG.COM
41

CONDITIONS
Words: Olga Khvan
Photos: Catherine Powell
When the rock band Conditions entered the
studio to work on their second full-length album,
guitarist Alex Howard found himself faced with a
challenge.
While he, vocalist Brandon Roundtree, drummer
Ryan Tinsley and bassist Corey Thomas were ready
to create a follow-up to their 2010 full-length debut
Fluorescent Youth, the band’s second guitarist, Jason
Marshall, had other plans.
Jason left the band to go back to school, leaving
Alex with a lot more responsibility in the creative
process.
“It was definitely challenging. Every band I’ve
ever been in, I’ve had another guitarist with me,”
42
CONDITIONS
Alex says. “I’d work on a part and they’d either do
the rhythm to it or add something on top of it, but
this time we’d be writing a song and get through the
rhythm, the basics of it, and I’d be like, ‘Crap. I’ve got
to write all the leads to this song, too.’”
But with the help of producer Brandon Paddock,
who pushed Alex and the rest of the guys to do their
best despite the shift they had just gone through,
Conditions were able to create something they are
truly proud of.
“We think it’s a step in the right direction for us,”
Alex says. “I think it’s a little more dynamic and a
little more diverse than the stuff we’ve put out so far.
We’re really pumped to get it out.”

It’s been six years since Conditions first formed
— they’re an assembly of members from various
local bands in Richmond, Va. — and since the very
beginning, the band have tried to maintain a do-ityourself
approach to their music.
“With the first couple of EPs, we had people telling
us to try this and try that. We had a producer
tell us one time, ‘I don’t get you guys. I think you
either need to go fully hard like Slipknot or fully pop
like Boys Like Girls,’” Alex says, taking a long pause
before speaking again, as if to let the absurdity of
the suggestion simmer. “I was like, ‘I don’t think we
sound like either of those. Can’t we just be a rock
band?’”
CONDITIONS
It was while working on Fluorescent Youth that
the band learned to really drown out the outside
voices.
“When we first started out, we thought we knew
what we were doing, thought we had some sort of
goal,” Alex says. “Then over the first couple of years,
we had people pulling us either way, whether it was
management that didn’t quite work out or agents
and producers who would mess with our heads a
little bit. But when we were writing our first fulllength,
that was the first time that we were like, ‘We
don’t give a shit.’”
The band approached their second full-length
with the same sense of authority, but also worked
NKDMAG.COM
43

off of the criticism they had received in the past.
“I think people will be very surprised with the one
we’re about to put out,” Alex says. “It’s a little more
mature for us, I think, and every song is a little bit
different, whereas in the past our biggest criticism
was, ‘I like their songs, but a lot of them just sound
really similar.’ I get that. I know where people are
coming from when they say that, so it was a conscious
effort this
time around to do
something different
in every song
and I think we did
a good job.”
As of now,
the album is due
to come out in
March. Meanwhile,
the band have
been focusing on
their live performance,
adjusting
to the new dynamic
since Jason
left.
“It was a lot at
first, to just relearn
all of our old songs
and know which
part I should play
where and also
singing on top of
it, but now that I’m
comfortable with
it, it’s really fun,”
Alex says. “We’re
just rolling with
the four of us and
trying to fill it out
the best we can.”
The guys
haven’t completely
ruled out
bringing in another
guitarist down the line, but as of right now, they
seem quite content with how things are going.
“There’s just so much more room on stage now
and hotel rooms aren’t as packed,” Alex says, chuckling.
“It’s great. I’m very happy with it so far.”
The band are also happy with the variety of their
tour mates, which have ranged from heavy rock
44
CONDITIONS
bands like letlive. to pop rock acts like Every Avenue.
“When I go to see a show, I want to see a little bit
of diversity,” Alex says. “I don’t want to see five bands
playing four-chord pop songs and I don’t want to
just be screaming.”
When it comes to their own music, the band
regard themselves as belonging somewhere within
a happy medium.
“I feel like we’re
that band that
could pass as just
a rock band with
some pop sensibility,
but when
we play live, it’s
just a little more
passionate than
can be captured
in a recording, so
it comes off a little
heavier,” Alex says.
But with live
performances, it
can sometimes
be more than just
about the music
— and that’s the
most rewarding
part, according to
Alex.
“I think, more
than anything,
we’re just humbled,”
he says.
“Even if you’re
having a bad day
and you don’t
want to play and
you’ve got crap
going on at home
and you’re broke,
whatever the case
may be, you’ll play
a show and it’ll
kind of put the life back in you. And someone will
come up and be like, ‘I was going through this really
rough time and your music was the only thing that
helped me through. I just want to thank you.’ Then
it’s like, let me take a step back from whatever my
problem was. This is something bigger than just me
and I’m really thankful to be a part of it.”
NKD

KEVIN
DEVINE
Words: Isaac Bate
Photos: Catherine Powell

No matter the topic, he remains intensely softspoken,
and always absolutely precise.
“I grew up in Bay Ridge, which is like South
Brooklyn,” he says, before pondering the exact
logistics of his upbringing. “I moved to Staten Island
when I was 11… I lived there until I was 18… I’ve
lived back in Brooklyn since 2000, so I guess it’s 23 of
32 years have been there. But I spent formative years
there, so I’m from Brooklyn with an asterisk. A Staten
Island shaped asterisk.”
It was in Brooklyn that Kevin first began learning
to play “Feliz Navidad” on the guitar at McKinley
Junior High School. He was writing his own songs
48
KEVIN DEVINE
KEVIN DEVINE HAS AN
EXCEPTIONALLY CALMING
MATTER ABOUT HIM.
not long after. “I would say that I wouldn’t stand
by much of the song writing I was doing at 13 or
14 now,” he remarks, as if a little concerned that
someone might try and make him. “At that age you
are mimicking much more openly rather than trying
to incorporate influence into something hopefully
developed as your own… There is a purity to the
emotion but there is also a purity to the ripoff…
Unless there are those people who are sort of fully
formed out of the womb. I was not one of those
people.”
Kevin is apparently incapable of finishing a statement
without adding some kind of counterpoint, or,

NKDMAG.COM
KEVIN DEVINE
49

50
KEVIN DEVINE

if he is talking about himself, a little self-deprecation.
Each time he stares down into his coffee to consider
if he means exactly what he has said, I think what a
wonderful diplomat he would have made.
I meet the acoustic singer-songwriter and
guitarist in the restaurant of the Wythe Hotel, in
Williamsburg. The hotel is in a beautiful, newly
renovated ex-factory building. Currently surrounded
by rundown, low-level, graffiti-covered warehouses
it stands as a symbol of the ever more gentrified
Brooklyn, utterly different to that of Kevin’s childhood.
This slow upward creep clearly grates on Kevin a
little. He is one of those Brooklynites with concerns
about the Atlantic Yards Project and the Nets’ move
to Brooklyn. “I’m of conflicted mind about [the
Brooklyn Nets] even existing because of the way the
stadium came to be,” he says, ever thoughtful. “There
was something rotten at its core, they displaced
a lot of people. I actually went there on opening
night because I accidentally lucked into a ticket to
the Jay-Z concert… it’s beautiful and it’s kind of
amazing, and sort of a modern marvel. But I also feel
like there were a lot of people who had lived and
worked in those places forever and it was just like,
‘scram, get out of the way’, and that’s kind of the
march of progress. It’s happened a lot around this
neighborhood too.”
Regardless of the ethical concerns, Kevin has
never been tempted to embrace the fresh-look Nets.
“There’s good things and bad things about it, but I’m
definitely not going to be rooting for their team. I
like the Knicks too much and it’s the first year we’ve
been good in 12 years.”
Though to a casual observer Kevin is obviously a
sports fan (he even played in a band called Miracle
of 86, after the championship winning Mets team of
1986), he is strangely equivocal about this passion,
as if it is something he shouldn’t enjoy. “I am a sports
fan, I guess, especially for a musician… I know I used
to [think music and sports were conflicting] when I
was younger.” He reflects on this point for a moment,
then explains why: “Maybe that was a product of
growing up when I grew up – like a Nirvana baby? I
didn’t really like jocks, and understandably. A lot of
those punk rock kids got their asses kicked. Jocks
didn’t love me at my school, but I didn’t have that
experience either. But I love baseball, and basketball
especially. I enjoy them as much as I enjoy plenty of
other more intellectual and artistic pursuits. I think
there’s an intellect to them too. I love the outsized
emotional potential and communal aspects of
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KEVIN DEVINE
51

KEVIN DEVINE
sports. There’s a poetry to it. So I guess I am a sports
fan.”
It’s hard to imagine the intensity of the culture
wars in high school of the ‘90s — in an era when the
word jock seems almost quaint and flannel shirts are
the mainstream, a world in which music and sports
are at odds is not immediately recognizable. But
for a young Kevin Devine, Nirvana and the culture
and attitude that surrounded them was enormously
important, even defining. “I was like, 12 years old
when that record [Nirvana’s Nevermind (1991)] came
out, so I was the person it was directly going to hit
like a lightening bolt. And it did, and it kind of recast
every thing about wanting to play music or listen to
music or how I wanted to exist as a musician or even
like a person on some level in it’s wake.”
Those genuinely familiar
with Kevin’s music might
not find that so strange,
but though his work is not
easily put into a genre, it is
certainly not immediately
recognizable as influenced
by Nirvana. But underneath
Nirvana’s grunge production
values Kevin simply
sees a genius songwriter.
“I always liked songs, and
by that I mean I like things
that take chances and I like
things that are risky but I
also like if the guts of it are
a song. Verse, chorus, verse.
Good lyrics, a melody.
I’m always drawn most
to those, whether it’s the
Beatles or whatever. I think
that’s why Nirvana was such a big deal to me. They
were an abrasive, risk taking, electrifying band but
he ultimately wrote a weird version of pop songs.”
Though Kevin is no longer the age at which it is
possible to be utterly consumed by a band in the
way one can be at 13, he still feels Nirvana were
something special. “I still like a lot of the bands I
liked at that age but I don’t listen to music the same
way now, I think you are more voracious about it
when you are that age. There’s a lot of bands from
that time period that, when I hear their songs now,
it sounds like that time period. When I hear the best
Nirvana songs it sounds like it could be any time
period. And that’s the best thing about great music.
52 NKDMAG.COM
“I WOULD SAY THAT I WOULDN’T
STAND BY MUCH OF THE SONG-
WRITING I WAS DOING AT 13 OR 14
NOW.”
>> KEVIN DEVINE

A singer-songwriter can write a song about
anything. Most share an especially monogamous
relationship with their material, being the one who
writes, composes and performs their own music.
This sort of control is what Lacey Caroline, 22-yearold
singer-songwriter from Sparta, N.J., finds most
appealing about her newly launched solo career.
“I wanted to write songs on my own, without
so many other people involved,” Lacey says.
She describes her musical experience as having
snowballed after she received her first guitar at age
14. She began writing songs almost immediately
and played with multiple bands. She last fronted
and sang for the band The Best Week Ever. Lacey
thrived on the high-energy atmosphere of being in
a band and valued the effort of teamwork, though
she recognized that everyone has his or her own
approach to writing music. “There’s no straight
formula,” she says.
The upside of being in a band, she describes,
is the ability to bounce ideas off other people. “I
got to work with people who are very creative,”
she says. Bands hardly fall short of finding ways
to fuel creativity among one another. But like any
relationship, being part of a band also demands
a willingness to compromise. “There’s a lot of
different hands on a project. It can get far removed
from what I originally started,” Lacey explains, which
brings her back to being a solo artist. “In a band you
have a bunch of co-pilots and friends. Being a solo
artist can get lonely,” she laments momentarily. “But
you get ultimate control,” she says, grinning.
Lacey clarifies that she’s not trying to force
herself into any one genre, noting that what people
listen to doesn’t necessarily determine what they
play. She likes pop-punk and is a longtime fan of
Blink 182, but more recently she’s taken a strong
liking to folk music. “I’m concentrating on my
LACEY CAROLINE
lacey caroline
WORDS: KIKI VAN SON | PHOTOS: CATHERINE POWELL
sound now and what I write naturally,” she says. She
received formal training in classical cello — her first
instrument — at age eight, but learning guitar and
how to sing was a matter of self-experimentation.
“My songwriting process is literally me, sitting
in my room on my bed with my guitar, strumming
chords for hours and hours,” she says. “It’s a matter
of when the words I’m thinking about click with the
melody that I’m humming and the chords that I’m
playing.” This process takes patience but if you allow
yourself to be inspired by anything, as Lacey claims
to be, the rate at which something clicks should
increase. “It’s that level of going a little bit deeper,”
she says of songwriting, “in what you can probe and
poke at that’s a little more heavy, that you just don’t
see on the surface.”
Lacey is insightful and her lucidity is reflective of
an Ivy League graduate. She graduated from Cornell
University last spring with a degree in Industrial
and Labor Relations. Although this isn’t her focus
moving forward, she’s glad to have successfully
completed school and is excited for the luxury and
freedom it’s granted her to pursue music.
Now she’s ready to record. She says most her
time over the next few months will be spent in the
studio.
“I want to write my own songs and grow into the
artist I eventually want to be,” she says. What the
music industry has in store for Lacey is still unclear.
Though she has the hearty and versatile voice of
a contestant on The Voice or American Idol, Lacey
verifies that you won’t be seeing her there. “With
those shows, everything can be calculated and
controlled by other people,” she explains. On that
note, she said she’d consider X-Factor, but the only
certainty is that she’ll be directing her own future.
So look out.
NKD
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56
TYLER WARD
TYLER WARD
Words: Christine O’Dea
Photos: Catherine Powell

When Tyler Ward uploaded his first video to
YouTube, he did not imagine that a full-time
career would result. Today, just four years later,
Tyler is an internationally known musician and
YouTube sensation.
I catch up with Tyler recently at one of the last
few shows of his U.S. tour. We sit in the green
room at the Studio at Webster Hall in New York
City before his set, where he shares his past as
a football player at the Air Force Academy, his
present as a successful musician and what he
hopes is in store for his future.
For the last three months, Tyler has been on
tour both in Europe and the U.S. His indie and
acoustic rock songs have made their way into
the ears of people around the world. After 23
shows in Europe followed by 28 shows in the
U.S., he looks back on the days he began posting
YouTube videos and still can’t believe how it
led to his current success.
After graduating from high school in his
native Denver, Tyler played college football at
the Air Force Academy. “It was more to please
people,” he says. “And then I realized how kind
of idiotic that was because I was so unhappy for
six months. But it was a good decision. I learned
a lot of discipline there and I learned how to
work out regularly. Then I took that discipline
and just applied it to the music world.”
During his time at the Academy, he got
together with two other students, a bass player
and a drummer, on their time off to make music.
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TYLER WARD
57

Tyler can play the piano, bass, drums and guitar,
and is also a vocalist. “The Air Force Academy
band,” he says with a laugh. “It was so fun. We
were so bad, but it was fun.”
After dropping out a few months later, he
continued his college football career at another
school until he finally decided to focus on music
full time. Now, he gets fewer concussions and
has more time to do what he loves. “I started off
as a football player, and now here I am singing
pop songs,” he says. “The YouTube thing just
started working and I never looked back since.”
Tyler’s father supported him in pursuing
his dreams, providing him with the basement
where he first began filming videos. “‘I’ll give
you two years,’” Tyler recalls his father saying.
“‘You can live in my basement, I’ll pay for your
rent, and you take care of everything else.’” On
the weekends Tyler played shows at local bars
and saved a little of his earnings while also paying
his student loans and bills.
In February 2010, he watched one of his
videos go viral and has since made a life out of
YouTube. Fans grew attached and began asking
for more music. This led to tours and eventually,
the release of his first album. Tyler laughs as
he reveals that until this day, his father doesn’t
understand the concept of how Tyler came to
be a popular musician from his basement. “He’s
coming to terms with the fact that it’s working,”
he says.
Tyler is glad to have YouTube as a platform
to share his music. “With YouTube, you can be
global,” Tyler says. “You can have pockets of fans
in different parts of the world and when you
want to go out there, they all want to come because
you’re only really there once every couple
of years.”
Tyler describes himself as lucky. After all,
he was one of the first YouTube acts that now
has global success in the music industry. He
recognizes that he had two years of YouTube
exposure before the trend caught on. For Tyler
and many more musicians in today’s generation,
YouTube is a network that could make or
break a career. “I think honestly the biggest part
is the original music,” Tyler says. “People connect
58
TYLER WARD
with that more than the cover songs. Otherwise
you’re just a karaoke singer.”
Of course, he has proven to be much more
than a just a karaoke singer/YouTube coversinger.
In addition to writing and playing music,
Tyler has also expressed a passion for artist
development. “I want to be able to make a living
doing touring but honestly my passion is
producing and working with up-and-coming
talent. I love developing,” he says. “It’s kind of
like having an online record label, helping artists
develop and making fewer mistakes than I
made.”
Along the way, Tyler has also made new
friends. After he posted his cover of “Airplanes”
by B.o.B and Hayley Williams, Hayley Williams’
mother reached out to him to say how great his
cover was. “We became friends,” he says. “We
email each other all the time and she came to
the show in Nashville. We’re buddies, just because
of that one video.”
In addition to his YouTube helping him to
make friends (and millions of fans), the site is
a building block for his musical endeavors. “It’s
been really amazing to see the change,” he says
when asked about current YouTube acts. “I can’t
wait to see what happens two or three years
from now. I want to see who the first one is that
gets to that superstar level. Are we going to be
able to break that mold?”
Right now Tyler’s goal is to reach that next
level of superstar-dom. “The only way you can
do that is with a great original,” he says. You just
can’t stop a great song.” Regardless of where it is
discovered —YouTube or the radio — he believes
in the power of a good song.
Tyler is well on his way to reaching this goal,
but he remains humble, especially to YouTube
and the community that helped him get where
he is now. He calls YouTube is his “bread and
butter,” his “core.” “I’m not going to stop doing it
until it goes away,” he says. NKD

A FAREWELL TO
Every
Avenue
WORDS BY TANYA TRANER
PHOTOS BY CATHERINE POWELL

62
EVERY AVENUE
>> 2008-2011

EVERY AVENUE REALLY NEED A BREAK.
“What am I not going to miss?” Frontman David
(Dave) Strauchman says when I ask what he won’t
miss about life on tour. “Funerals, birthdays, weddings,
holidays, eating breakfast, getting three
meals a day, showering, having a closet. I could
sound really bitter right now,” he says, laughing.
I get the joke — he doesn’t have to miss these
things anymore.
“That’s probably the best thing we can say about
taking a break when people ask us why. It’s like
seriously, we have missed all of these things for so
many years on tour,” he says.
I meet up with Dave and guitarist Joshua (Josh)
Randall on the New York leg of their Last Call Tour in
Irving Plaza’s dimly lit lobby. Josh sits beside Dave
strumming an acoustic guitar quietly. Around us is
chaos, people coming in and out, photographers
setting up equipment, merch tables being unfolded
— so we are all forced to speak up. The hustle and
bustle doesn’t seem to faze the guys, however. They
are in good spirits, joking with me from the start.
This is it for the guys, at least temporarily. Every
Avenue are going on a long hiatus to pursue other
music ventures and, for some, to take a break from
the touring lifestyle for a while.
“We’re all just kind of figuring it out really,” Josh
says of new possibilities. “I think we’re all going to
continue pursuing music.”
“I’m not doing anything,” Dave says, interjecting. He
and Josh laugh. “I’m goin’ on a break.”
Dave might have the most need for this break.
He explains that he was already recovering from
surgery when he was hit by a car recently. Before the
Last Call Tour he was going to six doctor’s appointments
a week, and will have to continue doing so
afterward. He says this tour has been a break for him
simply because he has had time away from all the
doctors and appointments, but now it’s time to do
EVERY AVENUE
nothing and recover fully.
Every Avenue have been around for 10 years — they
formed in Michigan in 2003 when Dave was just 15
years old. He says he made a personal pact that he
would quit if they were not signed by the time he
was 21. Luckily, the band signed to Fearless Records
in 2007 and released their first album on the label
in 2008. They released their latest record, Bad Habits
(2011) with Fearless.
“There’s bands that are celebrating their 10 year
anniversaries, and we’re just like ‘Hey, we’re done.’”
Dave says, laughing.
In all seriousness, the guys have had a great run.
They both reflect on how lucky they are to travel the
world on tour, to play on Warped Tour and record in
different cities. Dave and Josh say they have formed
lasting bonds with their fans and others they have
met over the years.
“This tour has been cool because a lot of these cities
we are getting to play in we didn’t know anyone the
first time we played,” Josh says. “And now with these
last shows, there’s people we’ve grown to love over
the years and it’s kind of like a big family in every
city.”
“Yeah, there are a lot of fans,” Dave says. “I mean
they’re older now and they have jobs so we don’t
expect them to jump on every tour, but like Josh
said we have kind of created a family on tour, and
there are certain people that we expect to see at
each show.”
Some fans are going above and beyond to show
their appreciation for the band over the years.
“We had some friends from Buffalo make a scrapbook,”
Josh says. “And they had people from all over
the world send in letters to them, and they made
a scrapbook out of it which was really nice to go
through and read all of the letters and see all of the
pictures from over the years.”
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64
EVERY AVENUE
>> LAST NYC SHOW

The guys also reflect on the bigger impact their
music has had on many of their listeners.
“There’s been a lot of fans that have told us that our
music has helped them get through some really
hard times, and kept them from killing themselves,”
Dave says. “And, you know, helped them learn from
our songs and I think that is the biggest compliment
we could ever receive.”
I interject, because I have spoken with quite a few
bands who have felt a bit uncomfortable with fans
using them for a therapy session, but Dave doesn’t
see it this way.
“For us, I think the reason we play music is because it
is therapy to us,” he says. “If someone relates to that,
that’s pretty awesome. There are a lot of bands I can
put on to change my mood, and if we can do that
for someone, that’s pretty awesome.”
Even though most of their fans are great, no band is
without their fan horror stories. Dave jokes that he
tries to forget most of them.
“I feel like for the most part people are really cool
and respect your personal space,” Josh says. “Here
and there you get someone who’s like ‘Can I have
your coat?’ and it’s like ‘No, I need this.’ And then they
get mad at you, but for the most part everyone is
pretty awesome.”
Both say that they will most miss playing live every
night, and playing in other countries.
“We’re not going to stop writing and playing music.”
Dave says.
A lot of the members are already working on other
projects. Guitarist Jimmie Deeghan has already put
out a solo record. Drummer Dennis Wilson is in a
band called Like Crazy, a singer-songwriter venture.
Josh is currently working on a completely new
project called Rebel and Rose. He describes it as a
sort of country music venture.
“I just want to say thank you,” Josh says. “To anyone
who has come to our shows or bought our music.”
“Or stolen it,” Dave says, laughing. “We really don’t
care.”
“Anyone who’s showed our songs to one of their
friends,” Josh says. “They gave us this opportunity
to travel the world and do what we love, so I think
that’s pretty fucking awesome.” NKD
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EVERY AVENUE
65

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